The Ruins

(this was kind of a last minute, I'm already in the vicinity of the theatre so let's see what's on right about now, movie viewing)

I found myself appreciating the horror of this movie's situation. I am intrigued by movies that try to depict what completely average people do in extraordinarily unforeseen situations. What would you do if you and three friends were basically just waiting to die, not knowing if what will finally do you in is going to be the lack of food and water, the villagers or “the ruins”? At what point would you stop holding onto the slim chance that someone is going to come looking for you and start making radical decisions that are just as likely to hasten your death? However, I’m making considerably more of this angle than the filmmakers did.

So what do you want to know? Was it scary? Parts of it. But more than that it was kind of creepy, which is good if that’s what you’re into. Was it gory? Sure and not so much. The gore is more contextual than exploitative, so the camera’s not going to fill the shot with the guy’s head that just got blown off. (I can’t speak to the -- well, I won’t tell you what scene ... but I plugged my ears, hummed to myself and closed my eyes. It was a personal choice, and I stand by it). I will say I found the end to be a particular letdown, though, because the movie had built up some suspense and I was interested to know how the characters were going to get out of this situation ... and then it lost its suspense, you knew exactly was going to happen and how, and boom it was done. Verdict: Movie Rental if You Must